MANKATO, Minn. -- For months, Randy Moss worked with a personal trainer on Florida beaches, dragging a 90-pound sled and building up strength in his upper body. His weight went from 197 to 207 and his shoulders added more muscle. He built a weight room in his home.

Good thing. Moss's shoulders need to be as broad as possible because he carries the Vikings offense on his shoulders. No, the Vikings aren't going back to the Randy Ratio, that misguided formula in which Moss got 40 percent of the passing attempts. As he did for the first four years of his career, Moss is going deep.

	“	Playoffs is not really the question. Super Bowl around here is the question. We've been hanging around the last three years and it hasn't really happened. So we've put things together in the offseason and made some key acquisitions. For what it's worth, I think we can go to the Super Bowl. ”
		— Randy Moss, Vikings wide receiver

For two days in River Falls, Wis., Moss exploded downfield against the Kansas City Chiefs and blistered past cornerbacks for long touchdowns. Daunte Culpepper rifled the football as far as he could throw and Moss caught it in full stride. Unlike a year ago, defenders didn't touch the ball. Culpepper is having a no-interception training camp, and, as a team, the Vikings don't believe anything or anybody will "pick off" their bid to return to the playoffs after a two-year absence.

"Playoffs is not really the question," Moss said. "Super Bowl around here is the question. We've been hanging around the last three years and it hasn't really happened. So we've put things together in the offseason and made some key acquisitions. For what it's worth, I think we can go to the Super Bowl."

Second-year coach Mike Tice gulped when he heard the bold prediction of his star receiver. A couple of Moss's teammates have been hinting at similar thoughts. After 5-11 and 6-10 seasons, Tice is just trying to turn the Vikings back into a winner. Playoffs? Possible. Super Bowl? Well, let's just try to get off to a fast start in the first three regular season games and become a more physical, explosive team, he thought.

The good news for Tice is that Moss is going for the end zone and defying anyone to stop the Vikings. Offensively, the Vikings finished second in the league and the unit should be more effective because of the changes made on defense. What changes? Well, let's just say that the Vikings can start to say that they have a defense.

Over his first two seasons, Tice has turned over the personnel of one of the league's most porous units. Defensive tackles Chris Hovan and Fred Robbins are the only Viking defenders who remain from the 2000 season and the 1990s. A defensive line that was once a weakness is now strength. There is speed at the linebacker position. The secondary has been rebuilt. George O'Leary has installed a sounder, more aggressive scheme as the Vikings new defensive coordinator.

Practicing for two days against the Chiefs was a good barometer, and everyone knows a lot of work is still needed. The defensive front seven stuffed the run better but was still vulnerable to Trent Green's passing touch. Of course, that's not an indictment because the Chiefs put almost 30 points per game on opponents last season and have an offense that can be unstoppable. What pleased Tice is the Vikings, as a team, are developing a personality. A swagger is coming back.

"One thing I told the team in the offseason is that if we can run the ball and stop the run, we will develop a toughness as a football team," Tice said. "That's the personality we want to set. We want to be known as a tough football team."

In 2002, four teams -- Colts, Titans, Bills and Panthers -- that improved a low ranked defense significantly had the biggest increase in victories. Since 1999, the Vikings have ranked no worse than 28th and no better than 26th on defense. They surrendered more than 27 points a game last season. If the Vikings can get into the top 15 on defense, they could flop from 6-10 to maybe 10-6.

"The big thing we've got to do is tighten up coverage," O'Leary said. "We had too much open space in our coverage last year, so we've got to tighten that up. We will try to get more aggressive. We've set a lot of goals. We want to improve our three-and-outs from 32 to percent to 39 percent. The reason we want to do that is to get the ball in the hands of the offense. We have a very good offense."

Tice signed cornerbacks Denard Walker and Ken Irvin to improve the pass defense. He brought in Lions former first rounder Chris Claiborne to add a playmaker at linebacker. He drafted defensive lineman Kevin Williams to add another play-maker along the defensive line.

"I'm happy," Claiborne said. "As much as they needed me, I needed the Vikings. I needed a change. I needed a chance to get to the playoffs. We made a lot of changes on defense but it would be harder for it to come together if we had a lot of young players. We have a lot of veterans. Our scheme gets the defensive line to force a lot of plays to the linebackers."

	Randy Moss caught 106 passes for 1,347 yards last season.

As good as Moss looks in burning cornerbacks on long passes, Culpepper might be the bigger story of Vikings camp. He's had one of the game's best arms since getting the starting job in 2000, but his turnover numbers have increased over the past two years. He threw 23 interceptions last year and had nine fumbles.

Culpepper is working on an interception-free camp. For more than a week, Culpepper has avoided throwing a pick even though he's trying more long passes. An $82 million contract extension that has escalators into the $100 million range made him more relaxed and not worried about the future.

He has all the looks of a quarterback set to have a big year.

"I'm a year older, and a little bit more mature," Culpepper said. "My job is to throw the ball, keep mistakes to a minimum and have fun. Last year, I tried to force the ball deep and I threw maybe six different picks from trying to throw the ball deep. We'll go deep if we get single coverage, but I'm not going to force it. I'm checking down more and taking what defenses give us. I'm not trying to make plays when they aren't there."

Tice is pleased watching Culpepper throw the ball away when little is open. Better offensive line protection is helping. Bryant McKinnie, a holdout into the regular season last year, is hard to get around and shows excellent technique. Mike Rosenthal came from the New York Giants via free agency to settle the right tackle job.

"The tackles help and they hurt," Tice said. "The offensive line gives the quarterback more confidence he can step up in the pocket and look downfield. Sometimes it hurts because Daunte can't see because the linemen are so tall. Maybe I'll have to get Daunte a phone book."

McKinnie is 6-foot-8. Rosenthal is 6-7. Center Matt Birk is 6-4. To Culpepper, the problem is a good one because his linemen should buy an extra second to go deep.

D'Wayne Bates and Kelly Campbell have the speed to take a little coverage pressure off Moss by running long routes on the other side of the field. Bates caught 50 passes in his first season with the Vikings but he figures to get more action this year.

One concern is the backfield. Starter Michael Bennett is out until November because of complications following foot surgery and the job is wide open. Doug Chapman is currently running first team, and the sleeper is Larry Ned. Fourth-round choice Onterrio Smith doesn't appear to be ready to take over the starting job when the regular season starts unless he has a big exhibition season.

"I wouldn't say I would be comfortable starting a rookie, but I don't have a problem playing a rookie a lot," Tice said.

The Vikings may be adventurous in thinking Super Bowl, but their mentality is go deep. Moss has been to two NFC championship games and he feels good about this team.

That can't be a bad thing.

John Clayton is a senior writer for ESPN.com.